Insane Snow Sport Inventions You Secretly Wanna Ride

First there were skis, the oldest discovered skis are dated back to between 6300 and 5000 BC – yep – snow sports are way before Jesus’ time. A lot closer the toboggan was invented to aid in the transport of goods and luggage over long snow terrains. And then in 196 Sherman Poppen invented a device his wife called The Snurfer, this would later be officially named the Snowboard. Along this history of snow sports have been quite a few patented insane snow sport inventions. We present our favoured Top 10 Insane Snow Sport Inventions you secretly want to ride.

THE VENOM SWITCHBOARD

Venonsnow is now defunct I do believe – I cannot locate any info on the company but in 2007 it looked like the Venom Switchboard could have become a thing. The Venom Switchboard is a cross between skiing, snowboarding and a zimmer frame. It had the benefit of an aluminium steering bar for even greater control. This vehicle looks like it mixes together just the right amount of danger and thrills. I wonder what the point was of the split board style.

YIBB 2 HANDED SNOWBOARD

The Yibb 2 Handed Snowboard was designed by Dutch engineers and was released by Atomic Snowboarding in 2009. In 2013 Yibb sent their last tweet and it appears everything from the Yibb has now faded into oblivion.

Yibb was created to help open up the sport of snowboarding to everyone, especially small children. The Yibb could be mounted on any standard snowboard and lets you ride without bindings. Your feet are not attached to the board, so through the use of the handles, you ride using your entire body. This position offers better stability and balance, making it easier to learn or get the feel of snowboarding. Basically your arms and the Yibb handles made you the binding. Definite downsides would be limited manoeuvrability but positives would see it be a great way for kids to get on a snowboard and get a feel for it – call it snowboard training wheels perhaps?

Good. A good starter for snowboarding but it would never make it mainstream.

AESMO POW SURFERS

The Äsmo or Aesmo Pow Surfers are a combo board from skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding. They have a unique shape and are without bindings, utilising a grip board for you to stand on, similar to where you would wax a surfboard. I find them very niche – that would only be suitable for literally surfing big powder – maybe a nice item for the quiver in Japan or the other big powder locales around the world. They would be quite light and I could see them strapped to a backpack to take with you on the mountain and use when you find the perfect mountain.

We looked at the Äsmo Pow Surfers in another article we posted – check it out HERE – it is the most relaxing snowboarding video you will ever see. It’s hypnotic!

BLOODY EPIC – and the good news is that the ÄSMO POW SURFERS have taken off.

THE HANGBOARD

The HangBoard experience is part hang gliding, part mountain biking and part snowboarding. It gives the feeling of flying above snow. That is the part I love and also the chance to have a lot of control on a board while being horizontal, you can steer it and you are closer to the ground – going fast on a smooth surface would be mad fun.

But you have your legs on either side of a metal pole, what happens if you roll? I see a lot more broken legs. I do like that you mount it on a standard snowboard so it would be a decent item to try out but not be stuck with the entire rig. Chairlifts appear easy on the video but I am unsure about that. And how the hell do you smash moguls in this thing? I see spinal damage. A great item for a milder front valley experience.

Their Facebook page hasn’t had a post in 3.5yrs so I have a feeling the HangBoard has been retired.

SNOW SAILING aka WIND SKATE

Snow Sailing is something that would look good in a Mad Max movie – a flat snowy wind assaulted tundra crossing in a storm. Either that or one of those insane James Bond opening sequences. But on a mountain? I don’t know – it makes sense to help you get uphill but the part of boarding or skiing is the gravity – you are mostly pointing downhill. This is more one of those things to show people that it can be done. It would never be commercially viable at a ski resort.

RATING: Good | Bloody Epic | Inventor was on some Serious Acid,

Serious acid – awesome idea and would be ideal on flat ice/snowfields around the world but on a mountain? Too big.

DUAL SNOWBOARDS

I love them and I want them!! They give your legs their independence back and you have the opportunity to walk and more flexible manoeuvrability. BUT…. reviews claim while it takes a while to get used to them and they are a lot of fun they just don’t cut it as a snowboard replacement. But with them being so small these babies could be thrown in your backpack and used for some afternoon wind down on easier slopes after shredding hard all morning.

They are to snowboarding as snowblades are to skiing. I still want to have some fun on them!

SNOWFEET

Snowfeet are the current fad on the mountain, we wrote an article about these funshoes about six months ago and it went viral – everyone was keen to find out about Snowfeet. Check out our full article on them HERE. Snowfeet give you the opportunity to ski in your shoes basically. Downside is they are not suitable on slopes too steep, powder is a no go and moguls may kill you. But for a front valley piece of fun these babies would rock. Think of those sneakers with rollers in them kids have, this is basically them for the snow.

Good – this one is taking off at the moment and the Snowfeet peeps are constantly selling out. They are actually petitioning for them to be an Olympic sport – it will never happen but it is a great on-snow novelty item.

SNOWSCOOT

NEED!!! Combine a scooter with a snowboard or more mono-ski (remember those?) and you are set. I picture lifties riding these down after last runs. The footage is awesome and they look like a hell of a lot of fun. They are also still available and claim to have been around since 1992!!

BUGGY SKI

Jean-Yves Blondeau, also known as Rollerman, is a French designer who is best known for inventing the 32-wheel roller suit. He has become world famous and his invention also known as the “roller suit” or “buggy rollin.” The suits are usually covered in wheels and can reach road speeds of 70mph (112kph). In 2016 Blondeau swapped wheels for snowblades and hit the slopes. And we get to see the most crazy method of coming down the mountain since people saw the first skis.

PROPELLOR MAN

Russian inventor, Sergei Khvalin,came up with a logical way to travel speedily and in style: a propeller-powered backpack, built from lawnmower and paraglider parts. It allows him to turbocharge his skis to speeds of up to 25mph (40kph).

Khvalin’s backpack weighed in at 15kgs and looks a little heavy, bulky and possibly (but not too) dangerous. A definite good prototype, it needed a few years of improvements and this thing would be awesome. It was made and used in 2011 and I can’t see anything since then on its progress. There have been a few other attempts to make a jet pack for skiing and one guy (HERE) tried to add a jet engine to the back of his snowboard – it was pretty lame.

SLED LEGS

SLED LEGS look like a heap of fun and less insane snow sport inventions and more smart way to have fun. As much as my knees are stuffed and would be a hell of a lot more stuffed using these regularly I still want them. It’s like wearing a toboggan on your legs. And they are only about $46- a set.

These are fully available on the website below and you even get discounts for family packs. Do eeeeet!!